Author Archives: Emily

It’s Beginning To Taste A Lot Like Christmas

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Eggnog and peppermint are two of my all-time favorite flavors so naturally December is one of my favorite food months. Here are some of the items I’ve been stockpiling for the celebration –

On-theme things from this week include…

Coffee combo. The chobani oat nog is the best vegan egg nog I’ve tried but not as good as the traditional stuff.

Holiday kombucha with a holiday crisp barebell and a Lady Alice apple.

Hanco’s peppermint iced tea! With herbal jelly and strawberry jelly hearts (aka the best bubble tea combo).

Holiday ice creams at Ample Hills. Coquito and Co – coquito ice cream with rum, cinnamon, and nutmeg and homemade coconut cheesecake chunks // Festival of Lights – cream cheese ice cream with raspberry rugelach.

Dinner and drinks at Sleyenda, Leyenda‘s holiday pop-up! They decorate to the nines and serve a specialty cocktail menu all month.

We had coquito, obviously, plus my favorite drink of all-time – The Candy Striper – a frozen blend of Novo Fogo silver cachaça, coconut, maple, vanilla, lemon, peppermint, and cardamom.

Bonus – Coffee with cardamom and amazing Yemeni pastries at Diwan Cafe. This was stuffed with cheese and smothered in honey!

Festival Of Latkes

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Happy Hanukkah to my readers who celebrate! Highlights from this week include…

My new favorite citrus – Kishu Mandarins. They are as juicy as they are small and adorable.

Fat Orange Cat double IPAs.

The most “me” beer I’ve ever purchased – Evil Twin’s cola sour with marshmallow and cinnamon.

A fun thing for this December – we bought a marshmallow advent calendar. Our first two flavors were cranberry and maple pancake.

My parents sent us an assortment of mint candies, including homemade buttermints!

A take on the New York Times’ cheesy white bean bake – I added shredded chicken, onion, chili flake, and urfa pepper.

Trader Joe’s cheese blintzes. Topped with cranberry sauce and a brown sugar vanilla yogurt sauce.

Chicken burger, roasted broccoli and cauliflower, and Trader Joe’s latkes and cauliflower latkes.

Takeout from Roast – chicken taco sandwich / roast beef melt / crispy chili brussel sprouts – with leftover latkes.

With Cranberry On Top

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What an odd-feeling week; Adam and I came back from vacation and then immediately both went to work on Saturday, then it was a holiday week which always feels special even though we both worked, and tomorrow we are heading to Pennsylvania for a belated holiday celebration with all of my in-laws. But first, tonight we are meeting out of town friends for Her Name is Han, which should be quite fun.

Highlights from the week include – mostly things that were on-theme!

I want to say I don’t have a limited/seasonal release item problem but this year I stockpiled things that were on-theme for Thanksgiving, so you tell me. My Christmas collection is also pretty robust.

I needed special coffee to ease back into work so I pulled out Hudson Opera House Espresso beans from our last trip to Hudson Roastery.

Perfect Bar’s new chocolate toffee flavor was yummy (still can’t compete with the cookie dough one though).

See also – I liked Barebell’s holiday crisp even better. I couldn’t totally identify the flavor profile – coconut? – but it was creamy and delicious.

Yogurt bowl. With pumpkin seed butter, cranberry sauce, and maple and almond butter granola.

Peanut brittle Reese’s?! I actually loved these (still not as good as the pretzel cups!).

Homemade bbq turkey and black bean chili. Topped with cheese, cranberry sauce, and Trader Joe’s hot and sweet jalapenos.

Plus herbed stuffing veggie chips.

Salads. Sweet baby lettuce with black garlic balsamic vinaigrette, Trader Joe’s maple roasted almonds, smoked turkey, and roasted butternut squash.

Plus a mix of stuffing chips; we much preferred Trader Joe’s to the Whole Foods version.

Nachos! Stuffing chips with cheese, cranberry sauce, and smoked turkey.

St. Thomas 2021

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Adam and I both had a full week of vacation off together so, of course, we went home for a visit! We ran downtown along the water, got up early to walk on the beach, had dinners with family and friends, and just generally enjoyed every single moment! I got my wedding dress out of storage without telling Adam and surprised him on the beach where we got married, which was super fun. And some food highlights included a coconut mint fraco with condensed milk, mahi from a food truck at Coki, and salmon patties from Ashley’s at the airport.

Calamansi, Chestnut, Coconut, Cookie

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Highlights from this past workweek – – –

Yogurt bowl with blackberries and a salted caramel cookie.

Best (non-coffee) drinks of the week – calamansi sparking water (7/10) / lemon rose sparkling tonic (9/10) / imperial IPA (8/10)

A new-to-me apple variety – Senecacrisp.

I had an evening appointment in the city and I got to check out Marvelous by Fred and their Merveilleux (aka floofy piles of whipped cream and meringues). I tried coffee and seasonal chestnut.

I enjoyed these vegan ice cream bites even more than I was expecting to; something about the chocolate was very satisfying.

These smoky, crunchy yellow peas are also pretty addictive.

BBQ rice bowls – brown basmati rice / sautéed kale with yellow onion and passionfruit vinegar / roasted zucchini / ground turkey with bbq sauce, Korean chili flake, and brown sugar / avocado.

Leftover rice stir-fried with garlic, evoo, fish sauce, rice vinegar, and Sichuan pepper salt / with turkey summer sausage / green onion / a gourmet mushroom blend / kumato tomatoes / and egg.

P.S. By the time you read this we will be on vacation! Adam and I have seven straight days off together!! Woo-hoo!

Calamansi, Grapefruit, Yuzu

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Highlights from the last week, mostly fun drinks and good sandwiches on Trader Joe’s sourdough…

A new style of Kind bar, in dark chocolate peanut butter.

Sparkling matcha with a calmansi soda.

Seaweed chips plus sparkling yuzu.

A super easy paloma. I am 11/10 about finding tiny Squirt cans.

These tiny Trader Joe’s gummi bears are as delicious as they are adorable.

Out-of-town friends were here this Sunday and we spent an afternoon taking a long walk through Greenpoint – Williamsburg with stops for coffee and ice cream – the apple pie with cheddar caramel from Odd Fellows.

Tuna melts and roasted brussel sprouts. Tuna salad with mayo, stone-ground mustard, and capers, plus cheddar.

The turkey sandwich I’ve been waiting for all fall – with cheddar and pumpkin butter. Plus roasted broccoli with garlic and chili flakes.

P.S. It was a short week because I spent the first half in Ohio celebrating my grandmother’s NINETY-SECOND birthday. She’s amazing and it was an amazing trip!

P.P.S. Also I was home for several meals that didn’t get photographed because apparently we are obsessed with Roast Sandwich Shop and will order and eat their bbq chicken crunch wrap multiple days in a row!

Peanut Butter, Pretzel, Pumpkin

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Highlights from the past week – – –

Pumpkin spice latte smoothie! Canned pumpkin, plain skyr, coffee, cold brew powder, ice, cinnamon, maple, and brown sugar.

This week’s coffee joy.

Pumpkin spice Chobani with s’more granola.

Plan Siggi’s with pumpkin seed butter. Plus an apple and a pumpkin spice chocolate cookie. P.S. This recipe made some of my favorite cookies of all time, so butterscotchy!

I am 100% obsessed with these pretzel-stuffed peanut butter cups. I bought bags of minis for work and home.

I saved the best pumpkin beers for last – Abomination Brewing’s Forbidden Pumpkin pumpkin milkshake IPA and Schlafly’s pumpkin ale.

Trader Joe’s Turkey Day quesadilla.

This is to remind me to get takeout from Roast more often! Adam and I split cheesy turkey and roast beef sandwiches, plus fries.

My favorite sheet pan hash combo – roasted bok choy and sweet potato plus smoked salmons (hot smoked Atlantic and salmon candy).

Pumpkin pasta. Whole-wheat rotini with ground turkey cooked with pumpkin puree, sour cream, and chili oil. Plus roasted baby cauliflower.

Tahini Frozen Cold Brew

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Highlights from a weekend with a lot of Brooklyn walking (Prospect Heights to Cobble Hill // Greenpoint to Williamsburg) – – –

Coffee from home – iced phin-brew with ube and chocolate milk.

Edith’s has a brick-and-mortar now and their tahini and oat milk frozen cold brew officially made it into my top five lifetime favorite coffees!

Our spicy everything bagel with smoked mackerel salad and labneh was not bad either.

A very summery sandwich and seltzer from Campbell’s. Smoked chicken, pimento cheese, green apples, pickled onions, mayo, and arugula on sourdough + hibiscus and rose.

We went big for our last Smorgasburg visit of the season. Cookies and cream ice cream with toasted Italian meringue.

Duck Season royal poutine – duck fat fries, duck bacon, cheese curds, and duck gravy!!

This frozen daiquiri from Elsa is my new favorite cocktail. I would like all of my drinks to be served with butterscotch and date molasses from now on!

And this was my newest favorite bubble tea combo – peppermint tea with herbal jelly and strawberry hearts.

Gooey peanut butter cookie.

Dinner at Pinto Thai. We loved the assemble your Thai iced tea.

Chicken satay.

Green papaya salad.

Crispy chicken with walnut, almond, peanut, cashew, and pumpkin seeds.

Candy Corn – Love Or Hate?

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Highlights from this week include – – –

Pumpkin Noosa + candy corn and Halloween mellow creams (I am very pro candy corn, by the way! I also like black licorice and mint candies)

I didn’t like this yogurt but I did quite enjoy the Jones bar.

Still very into these vegan pork rinds. Adam brought some into a work meeting and his coworkers were largely fans.

I scooped homemade caramelized onion, cheddar, and sour cream dip with these chips and that was obviously the best thing I ate all week!

I’d probably buy any Ben & Jerry’s new release but coffee with marshmallow was a no-brainer.

This week’s pumpkin booze was all from Shipyard. I shocked myself with how much I liked that seltzer.

I actually didn’t love this hatch chili mac and cheese and am posting to remind myself not to buy it again.

Whole Foods hot bar. Mac and cheese, green beans, buffalo cauliflower, and curried cauliflower.

Passionfruit vinegar chicken from the crock pot (extremely loosely based on this recipe). With roasted broccoli.

California bowls! Imitation crab sticks with cucumber and avocado / dressed with Kewpie, chili oil, and rice vinegar / and topped with furikake.

Pumpkin, Cinnamon, Squash

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Highlights from a nice weekend…

A coffee menagerie.

Drip Coffee has gotten a lot of good press and I see why – this oat milk latte was smooth and delicious!

Bars – pumpkin pie was good, chocolate seed and oats was great.

It was Sweetest Day on Saturday so Adam and I went on a date to Laderach to buy an unreasonable amount of chocolates.

Golden Years in Brooklyn for a classic cheeseburger with fries.

Plus not-so-classic Cuba Libre with fernet and Paloma with mezcal and jalopeno.

Dinner at Kings Co Imperial. Guangzhou Layover – mezcal, plum, Campari, and Strega.

Crispy oyster mushrooms with Sichuan chili pepper.

Chinese eggplant with garlic and kung pow sauce.

Chicken dumplings in cinnamon oil.

Noodles with mushrooms.

Best meal of the weekend was this homemade dinner. Curried chicken salad with celery, toasted almonds, and dried apricots, plus roasted yellow squash and delicata squash with cinnamon, urfa chili, and gochugaru.